Creating states¶

States are the building blocks of sandbox applications. In this section we will learn how to create states using CTA train tracker sandbox application.

Overview of States¶

The states that we used for this sandbox appication are:

StartState
ChoiceState
MenuState
EndState

StartState¶

A state when the user starts a session on the USSD. The following is an example of a StartState:

self.states.add('states:start', function(name) {
    return new MenuState(name, {
        question: 'Welcome to CTA train tracker.Pick a route:',

        choices: [
            new Choice('states:red', 'Red Line'),
            new Choice('states:blue', 'Blue Line'),
            new Choice('states:brown', 'Brown Line'),
            new Choice('states:green', 'Green Line'),
            new Choice('states:orange', 'Orange Line'),
            new Choice('states:purple', 'Purple Line'),
            new Choice('states:pink', 'Pink Line'),
            new Choice('states:exit', 'Exit')]
    });
});

The example above also uses ChoiceState and MenuState which displays a list of numbered choices and allows a user to respond by selecting one of the choices. E.g Red line, Blue line, Brown line etc.

EndState¶

This displays text and then terminates a session when the user is on the exit state. The following is an example of a EndState:

self.states.add('states:exit', function(name, opts) {
    var result = _.map(opts.echo.ctatt.route, function(route){
        return 'There are ' + route.train.length + ' trains on the ' + route['@name'] + ' line.';
    });
    return new EndState(name, {
        text: [
            'Thanks for using CTA tran tracker.',
            result.join(';')
        ].join(' '),
        next: 'states:start'
    });
});